How do folks avoid getting distant planes, trains and automobiles in their outdoor field recordings? I live in a rural area, but it is nevertheless a problem.

I imagine if one is recording a very localized sound, one could use 2 mics and use 1 to record the desired sound + noise, the other just the noise, then phase invert the latter when mixing them later. Have not tried it, should work.

What about if the target sound is more distributed? Any tricks of the trade?

I imagine if one is recording a very localized sound, one could use 2 mics and use 1 to record the desired sound + noise, the other just the noise, then phase invert the latter when mixing them later. Have not tried it, should work.

I was thinking about this, and wondered whether it might be better to do "additive-triangulation" for very localised sounds. By recording on two, very directional mics at different distances and as wide an angle as feasible (30<r<90deg) between them. You could then delay one channel just enough to add the two signals together, thereby doubling the signal - halving the noise.
You could even get the same percieved improvement in signal, while still panning the two mics hard L/R, which would give a 1 sound from two directions, pseudo stereo depth. Any sudden wind changes will give a phasing effect. Good? Bad? Just noteworthy.

My main issue with the noisel/signal+noise approach is that the wind noise/rumble is localised to each mic, and will therefore not phase cancel. I hope that makes sense._________________What makes a space ours, is what we put there, and what we do there.

I imagine if one is recording a very localized sound, one could use 2 mics and use 1 to record the desired sound + noise, the other just the noise, then phase invert the latter when mixing them later. Have not tried it, should work.

I have done this, but in a different context. You set up two identical and directional mikes facing the opposite way, and you can cancel out a lot of the background this way.

In TV and film recording they use highly directional mikes normally, also called shotgun mikes. Other mikes are designed for on location news reporting, which use different techniques to filter out background noise, and they are dear. An SM-57 or 58 will also do this for much less. They tend to color the sound a bit but are still usable. They make use of what is called the proximity effect to reduce bass the longer away the source is from the mic.

You can also use software to further reduce the noise after the fact. I often use Adobe Audition (previously Cool Edit Pro) which works quite well in many cases._________________Muied Lumens Base Star

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